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Tag: Irish

Taking a break from covers and requests for this week, we decided to dust off another of the originals. Castaway was one of the easiest songs to write out of any of my efforts…lyrically that is. The bulk of it all arrived in one go while I was sat idly by waiting to meet up with some friends, in those glorious days before we had so much to easily distract and whipping out a notepad was an acceptable way to pass the time. Originally, it was a very lively bouncy number and I was quite happy with it. As time went on though I felt it didn’t really fit the lyrical content, at least how I intended it. To me the song was about the desire to go and do the things in the song, rather than someone actually in the process of doing them. The endless debate about writer’s intention versus listener’s interpretation is one I frequently find myself in – do we seek the writer’s interpretation of the song or our own? Everyone is different, I usually can’t decide myself, but I wrote this with a specific intention while at the same time I love hearing different interpretations.

A little bit of me is somewhat shocked we’ve actually got this one done. Opening the floor for requests is something we were quite excited about and then we got a great response with loads of great songs. Then we decided to start with an elaborate arrangement on a multitrack recording. Basically we went right outside of the comfort zone we’ve established on our YouTube page! Suffice to say we’re quite happy with the outcome though and believe we’ve done a good job of suitably niallon-ing this song. Far Away has a special place for many due to its inclusion on the Red Dead Redemption in-game soundtrack, playing over a somewhat epic moment in the 2010 smash hit. As with so many songs that gain their notoriety from soundtracks, sometimes it’s easy to ignore them being good in their own right. I’ll be honest, I’d actually forgotten it was from the Red Dead soundtrack when I first saw the request come in and the process of learning, arranging and recording the song has left me a bigger fan then when we first began. José González’s original arrangement is more than a little haunting and in our take on it we tried to retain that, whilst branching out in very different directions musically at times. We hope you enjoy and as always, watch, like, share, subscribe!

When Kings Of Leon released they’re massively successful album “Only By The Night” a strange thing seemed to happen. All of a sudden they had a legion of new fans after years as indie darlings and I can proudly say I was one of those fans. At least I was a fan of the album anyway. Many say they “sold out” (whatever that term really means) and what resulted was incredibly accessible tracks like Sex On Fire, Revelry and of course Use Somebody.

The first time he heard it my father described Use Somebody as a ‘real rock song’ and I don’t think I’d even attempt to find a better description. It may be a bit generic, a bit straightforward, but it incredibly efficiently succeeds in conveying a central point while never sacrificing intellect at the same time. There was a more straightforward way to write this song, a way to make this a song more appropriate for a plain Jane pop act but it carries enough smarts to rise above that. As always, watch, like, share, subscribe!

I’ve gotta be honest, covering Ed Sheeran is a terrifying ordeal. The dude is just ridiculously talented and more terrifyingly – wildly adored. To say the the pressure is on when covering one of his tracks would be an understatement, but here we are, on what I’d say is roughly the fifth attempt at this particular track in 12 months, and we think we’ve finally got one we’re happy with! Peter remarked around the time we recorded this that Thinking Out Loud already has a feeling that it’ll become this decade’s Mr. Brightside. Sure, they’re two very different songs with very different applications, but the era defining nature of both and the timeless qualities shine through massively. Thinking Out Loud is an old school love song the likes of which we don’t see anymore, taking all the best element’s of The Beatles’ When I’m Sixty Four and Billy Joel’s Just The Way You Are and finding an ideal home somewhere in the middle. As always, watch, like, share, subscribe!*

*Also we swear, the requests are coming! Expect movement on that in the next few weeks!

No, you’re not seeing double. We did a cover of this over a year back but it was…rough. So here’s a somewhat better spin on it and to be honest, I get quite a kick looking at the polar opposite nature of the two videos. Alongside our covers of Titanium, She Wolf and others, This Is What It Feels Like is yet another one of those EDM tracks that we could see had more to it than one might initially perceive it. There is a misconception that exists that if you’ve heard one dance track you’ve heard them all, this could not be further from the truth in my opinion. More importantly, lyrically a lot of these tracks stand well above the rest with some extremely talented singers and songwriters coming in for collaboration. From all that, we then work to find the best arrangement to convert these songs from pumping club tracks into emotive ballads, and we hope we’ve pulled that off in the video below. Also, given that the response to Mr Brightside has been so strong and positive we’ve decided to open the floor to requests. Sure worst case scenario it’ll be a bit of craic, so if there’s anything you want to hear, fire it our way here in the comments, over on YouTube or any of our social media platforms! As always, watch, like, share, subscribe!

I mean, it’s said every year, but this truly is shaping up to be one of the most competitive Six Nations ever seen. Four of the six teams have had plenty of reason to be optimistic in the last 6 months or so, whilst Wales and Italy have had a steady time at least, if not spectacular. Most importantly, all six of them have big, pressure intensive wins under their belts recently and are perfectly fired up. Oh, and did I mention the addition of bonus points to the competition this year? Bring it on! Continue reading Six Nations – Wherefore Art Thou, Johnny?

Hello, it’s us again. These unplanned sabbaticals really have to stop. The good news is, we got a fair chunk of videos shot this summer and until very recently they were thought to be lost but Lazarus rose from the dead and so we’ve a few vids on the way. I won’t sell out what exactly happened…just always check your desktop. Nice subtle dig there. So here’s our latest, this tune and a half from Tom Waits. Though I’m obsessed, I gave up on trying to get people into Waits’ music a long time ago. Most of the objections were always the same – the voice. I’ll never deny it’s just musical marmite, but for the most part when I’ve covered his material it has gone down well, with Martha still sat as one of our most viewed videos to this day. So we hope you enjoy, and as always – watch, like, share, subscribe.